Awer’s time with the Young Socceroos

Young Red Awer Mabil highlights his journey with the national team.

You, our fans, must be wondering how the exciting Awer Mabil has spent his time away from Adelaide United Football Club. He has recently starred in the Young Socceroos’ campaign in the NTC Invitational Tournament in America and is hoping to extend his form into the coming season.

The Young Socceroos played a total of three games in the tournament, defeating Bermuda and Chile 3-1 and 5-4 respectively; two victories in which Mabil played a huge part in. He scored a brace in both – including a spectacular free kick against Chile – to spur his team to victory. The Socceroos rounded out the tournament with a 0-0 draw against the USA who was ultimately crowned victors of the competition.

Awer said that he had a feeling he would hit the ball well from that spot.

“All my team mates were around the ball and I just said, “back off, I’ve got this one.”

“I’ve been practicing my run ups and how to hit it in training lately but I’ve never really got it that good in the top corner before.”

“I couldn’t really celebrate because we were losing at the time but my goal helped spark the team and we started to get on top again.”

Mabil also noted that the competition was great to be involved in as the Young Socceroos have qualifiers for the 2015 FIFA World Cup in New Zealand at the end of the year.

“We really taught Chile a footballing lesson and you can see by our results how much it is coming together for us, even though we were underdogs coming into the tournament,” the 18 year old said.

“I was happy to be there and I’m focused on helping the team qualify for the 2015 FIFA World Cup. That’s our current aim for the Young Socceroos group.”

But the young star has even higher aspirations, knowing full well that he must first perform for Adelaide United and the Young Socceroos in the hopes of eventually playing for the national team.

“I know that I just need to keep working harder and harder and in the meantime I hope people enjoy watching me play.”

“Last year was a learning year for me so that included taking in everything Josep Gombau taught me. This year I’m ready to deliver more and use everything that I’ve learnt to make it a better year for myself and the club.”

Mabil is also impressed with Adelaide United’s Youth League setup, expecting a lot of young players to develop and sign for the first team. We have already seen Gombau feature a young squad this pre-season, particularly in the second half, against Málaga CF and Mabil believes that we can expect to see more of that in the upcoming Hyundai A-League season as the youth players understand the way the first team plays.

“I think this year we are all going to be giving Gombau selection headaches. Everyone is working harder and harder in training and the young players are able to play the first team system which is a great thing.”

Looking ahead to Tuesday night’s first round FFA clash against Wellington Phoenix at Marden Sports Complex, Mabil is looking forward to what the competition can add to the Reds’ pre-season preparations and believes it is a great build-up to the season.

“We’re taking it the way we take our A-League games in terms of preparation – it is a competition and we want to win.”

“At this stage of pre-season, it’s going to come down to who’s fitter and I believe that we have been working hard and have the quality.

“We want to go as far as we can in this competition, and that starts with a victory against Wellington on Tuesday.”

Awer is looking forward to playing at a different venue in Marden Sports Complex and hopes that a huge crowd will be in attendance to support the Reds as we look at progressing in the inaugural FFA cup.

Adelaide United will take on Wellington Phoenix on Tuesday 5 August at Marden Sports Complex as part of the inaugural FFA Cup.

Tickets for the FFA Cup match v Wellington Phoenix will be available to purchase for through the Adelaide United FC website. To purchase tickets, please click here.